Sunday, 12 November 2017

Mal di Ventre is a private island located off the coast of Sardinia. Mal di Ventre is notable for its Roman ruins and a Sardinian nationalist attempt at creating a micronation in 2008.
Mal di Ventre is located in the Mediterranean Sea, 7 kilometres (4.3 mi) from Oristano in central-west Sardinia. The island is inside a marine protected area and its western coast is exposed to the Mistral, giving it a rugged topography as a result. There is a lighthouse at the island's highest point, 18 metres (59 ft) above sea level.
The name of the island comes from Piedmontese cartographers, who mistranslated into Italian the Sardinian name Malu 'Entu ("bad winds") as Mal di Ventre ("stomach pain"). Ancient civilizations used to live on the island. The island was also inhabited during Roman times. The island contains ruins of Roman buildings, as well as the remnants of an ancient well. In 1898, the island became part of Parco del Sinis-Montiferru (Sinis-Montiferru institutional park).
Mal di Ventre was owned by British entrepreneur John Miller, who had owned the island since 1972. In July 2014 the island was put up for sale, with an asking price of £1,200,000REPUBLIC OF MALU ENTU

In September 2008 a former truck driver named Salvatore Meloni and his followers seized Mal di Ventre and declared it to be an independent state as part of a broader and controversial effort to win the independence of Sardinia. Inspired by the independence movements of Kosovo, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, Meloni declared himself president of the Republic of Malu Entu and set up a presidential residence in a blue plastic tent. He declared the nation tax free and claimed that over 300 people had expressed an interest in moving there. The island was previously a meeting place for the Sardinian Independentist Party. Not long after he took over the island, Meloni sent drafts of his initiative to both the United Nations and Silvio Berlusconi, who was President of the Council of Ministers at the time.

In 2011, Meloni was charged with tax evasion to the sum of 5 million euros. In the summer of 2012 Meloni was convicted for his role in trying to take over the island and sentenced to 20 months in prison.

Salvatore Meloni, known as Doddore, was a Sardinian independent activist.

As a road haulier, Meloni begins his political career as a councilor of the Terralba Social Movement in Terralba. He later joined the Sardo d'Azione and was among the promoters of the motion that on December 6, 1981 at the XXth congress of the party, resolved to amend art. 1 of the Statute, inserting the word"independence" instead of "stateless autonomy" without any reference to the Italian state

In December 1981, he was arrested after the explosion was found in his home in Terralba, accusing him of having attacked Cagliari's headquarters in Tirrenia and being in charge of a separatist plot to make Sardinia independent of the state Italian. After the arrest, Melons begins a series of hunger strikes to protest against what he thinks is an outrageous political persecution, and he founded the Partidu sardu pro s'indipendentzia (PARIS) with which he participated in the regional elections. In October 1984 he was sentenced to nine years' imprisonment with the accusation of political conspiracy and subversive association against integrity, independence and unity of the state. Melons is the only Italian ever condemned for this offense. Following the sentence, the right to vote is revoked and the perpetual ban on public offices is imposed.

Give up honoring the story again in 2008 when he declares independence of Maldra's Island. He died after 66 days of hunger strike in Uta prison (Cagliari) where he was recruited for crimes of a fiscal nature.